It’s all to play for now.
The final sixteen eligible teams have now entered the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup: the top eight USL Championship sides from last year’s standings, and the eight teams sent from MLS- including Atlanta United. They’ll pair up with the winners of Round Three for a final total of 32 teams to be whittled down to one.
Those 32 teams were placed into four team groups in the last draw, each named after a notable Open Cup figure. These groups will serve as mini-brackets for the next two rounds, before things get fully combined in the Quarterfinal Round.
Mostly grouped by geography (with some randomized exceptions), the Alonso Division (yep, that Ozzie Alonso) is the one we’re keeping our main focus on. Atlanta United, Charlotte Independence, Charleston Battery, and South Georgia Tormenta compete for dominance of the southeast- and a spot in the last eight of the most storied competition in American soccer. Let’s have a look, shall we?
Atlanta United FC-Charlotte Independence
Tuesday, May 7th – Fifth Third Bank Stadium, Kennesaw, Georgia – 7:30 PM – WATCH
The 2019 champions are granted the privilege (or un-privilege?) of being included in MLS’s eight team entry into this year’s edition of the tournament. Morale isn’t the best it’s ever been, especially following a drab 2-1 defeat in a rematch of that 2019 Final at home against Minnesota United. Poor performance? Bad omen? Wake up call? You name it.
In more recent seasons, though, the Five Stripes haven’t seen the same success in the domestic cup competition. Atlanta fell in the Round of 32 in 2022 to Nashville SC, and didn’t even make it to this round last year, losing out in a Third Round Cupset to USL Championship side Memphis 901 FC. A rebound tonight- both for last match and last season- will be wanted by all involved, especially an increasingly pressured Gonzalo Pineda.
Still, expect to see some rotation against the third division USL League One side from Charlotte. We already know goalkeeper Josh Cohen will make his official debut for the club, and two Short-Term Agreements were made with Atlanta United 2’s captain, defender Matt Edwards and academy product and Jamaican youth international forward Ashton Gordon. With Tyler Wolff’s recent MCL injury keeping him out four to six weeks, we could see an increased role open up for Luke Brennan, who has yet to make an appearance this season. More minutes for Stian Gregersen could be beneficial too as he works his way back to full fitness, and provide a confident presence needed in the backline.
Charlotte, last year’s League One Final runner up, are off to a promising start, sitting third in the USL League One standings through five matches played. The Jacks are riding a four match unbeaten run, with wins in three of those, and have gone through each of the previous three rounds of the tournament proper to reach the Round of 32, one of just four who can claim the fact. None came easily, though, as the Independence got past amateur side (hold on… CTRL+C… CTRL+V…) Vereinigung Erzgebirge 2-0, then narrowly avoided a Cupset against another Open Division opponent, UPSL’s SC United Heat, in penalties. That penalty fortune continued in Round Three, when Charlotte turned around and knocked of USL Championship newcomers (and Michael Parkhurst co-founded) Rhode Island FC in a dramatic match that ended even at 4-4.
With the talents of former Manchester United and Newcastle United midfielder Gabriel Obertan and former Seattle and Minnesota man Miguel Ibarra, along with the services of last year’s League One Goalkeeper of the Year Austin Pack, Charlotte have been able to keep a formidable roster through consecutive years, no easy feat for a lower division side.
A win for Atlanta might be just what’s needed to get players’ heads on straight, but a loss, another Cupset at the hands of a lower league side, would be a blow to a club and staff that could really benefit from a positive result right now, no matter the opponent.
Charleston Battery-South Georgia Tormenta FC
Wednesday, May 8th – Patriots Point Soccer Stadium, Charleston, South Carolina – 7:00 PM – WATCH
Last year’s USL Championship runners-up are back with a vengeance so far in 2024, posting an unbeaten 7-0-3 record to sit uncontested at the top of the Eastern Conference standings. The Charleston Battery, led by the Championship’s Golden Boot leader Nick Markanich with a whopping 12 goals, are even better at home, with an unblemished 4-0-0 record. Like Atlanta, they too enter the Open Cup with the final batch of teams, just four wins away from featuring in their second Open Cup Final.
With the playmaking efforts of Aaron Molloy, second in the league in chances created, Charleston are flying high at the moment- five consecutive wins. With hosting rights staying with the winner of this match, it’ll take a major Cupset to take down Charl- ohmygod is that Tormenta’s music?
South Georgia are no strangers to the Magic of the Cup™, and are also full of said Magic as another one of the four teams left standing from the First Round. Tormenta have gone through a close 1-0 win over amateurs CFL Spurs, then dismantled neighboring pro side Savannah Clovers in their first ever meeting, 4-0, before dominating above their weight on a visit to Championship side Miami FC, scoring another quartet of goals to win 4-2 and advance to the Round of 32. In fact, Tormenta found a result in this same matchup against the Battery two years back, a 1-0 win at Patriots Point that sparked a trip to the Round of 32, progressing past Birmingham and then battling it out with Inter Miami and ultimately falling in Ft. Lauderdale.
Ever since their transition to professional soccer in 2019, USL League One side Tormenta FC have never lost in the Open Cup to a team from the Championship above. That’s not one, not two, not three, but four wins over second division sides. Can the Ibises from Statesboro make it five in one of their toughest tests yet, and potentially bring a historic Round of 16 match home with them?
Other non-Alonso Division Round of 32 matches to keep an eye on:
Tampa Bay Rowdies vs Birmingham Legion FC
Wednesday, May 8th – Al Lang Stadium, St. Petersburg, Florida – 7:30 PM – WATCH
Two familiar lower division names for any Atlanta United fan, a spicy interleague matchup between USL Championship sides with the stakes of hosting a Round of 16 matchup against either FC Dallas or Memphis 901 FC. Birmingham seeks some consistency in results, while Tampa Bay looks to recover from a 4-1 drubbing last weekend to Memphis. The two sides will play each other again three days later, but don’t expect pulled punches with so much on the line.
Union Omaha vs Sporting Kansas City
Wednesday, May 8th – Caniglia Field, Omaha, Nebraska – 8:00 PM – WATCH
Not within the region, but 100% must watch match of the entire Round of 32 slate. Union Omaha, the other of the three USL League One teams mentioned here left standing in the tournament, are set to host regional MLS opposition Sporting Kansas City in front of what should be an electric crowd. Omaha stole the spotlight in 2022, reaching the Quarterfinals after taking out Chicago Fire on penalties and Minnesota United 2-1, both on the road. The Owls ultimately fell on the road in Kansas City, an abrupt 6-0 ending to their Cinderella run. Now, with home field advantage, Union Omaha will be looking to avenge their losses from two years ago. An MLS side visiting a third division side, with tangible beef between the two? Like I said, must watch.
Speaking of watching…
All U.S. Open Cup games can be found on USSoccer.com, where they are all streamed live via YouTube. The matches are all unlisted on the site itself, but the good folks at TheCup.us have all the video links easily accessible on their site.
This article will also serve as your match thread for any and all of the Round of 32 matches, from Atlanta United-Charlotte Independence onward. Hop down below, share what you’re looking forward to seeing, and come back to discuss all the action across the board over the next couple of days as we watch teams book their places in the Round of 16.
Good to see Silva back out there and moving well.
Atlanta will face the winner of Charleston-South Georgia at that team’s home in the next round. Note that due to the way the groups are set up, no MLS teams can face each other before the round of 8.
We’re playing in the wrong league.
Eh, our heavily rotated side dominated, as they should. Charlotte did well to get this far.
I don’t think we gain near as much out of this performance than we’d have lost if we didn’t play well and lost the game. That would have been very bad.
This is the type of feel good, get back right game we needed.
apparently in the minority, but I love that venue. Well done team. Great seeing GG, Guz, Muyumba, Williams, Wolff, thiarre, and Saba all sitting directly behind us in the box. They seemed to be enjoying themselves.
RIOS
Goal brace
I know this is against a USL1 team or whatever but we are playing very well currently. Good playing out of the back, great combination in the midfield, and a free-flowing attack. This is how I would like to see the starters play more often.
Well, it helped that we are playing against a washed up Obertan who clearly had no interest in running. And then when they subbed him out to go with energy guys, we just casually bring Slisz, Lennon, and Wiley off the bench to help cope.
What a great goal. Good buildup and all. Also Jay Fortune is balling out. I think he feels more freedom in an environment like this.
Goal
Firmino is struggling. Hope he can get it together.
Well that aged well 🙂
He got it together. Glad to see it. He was sloppy as h#%* in the beginning.
Oh wow, that aged VERY well.
Very good.
I’d have put that one away……
Sometimes watching this team can be so frustrating. Often times we win the ball in great positions and there is a great pass we make. Sure, it might not go off but what if it does? But instead we just slow it down and play it back. It is espacially frustrating when Almada just slows it down and puts his foot on the ball. Like can we take some risks please?
*can make
I agree with this sentiment, but confused at why mentioning Almada when I thought he wasn’t playing in this game.
He isn’t. I was just referencing a more common example.
Brennan, fortune, and Dax look great
Almost just scored an amazing solo run.
Direct quote from Sacha Kjestan in his Monday write up on the official MLS website about Dax:
Lovely movement there
Stian injured again. Subbed out for Cobb.
looks like a concussion, so at least it isn’t his knee again
This crowd is why MLS doesn’t want to participate in this tournament. This must be costing the team a lot.
Exacltly what I was thinking. I mean we use to sell these games out even here in Kenesaw and the supporters section was very loud because it was so close to the field
I have a feeling it’s not just the tournament that is keeping attendance down.
Basically Antzhort is right, but…
The tournament has been a problem forever for SOME teams in MLS. Dallas and NYRB have been absolutely infamous for how few fans have gone to the matches in the early rounds, with both teams often drawing less than 1000 fans to home matches in the past at various times.
Sometimes the matches at Kennesaw look worse than they actually are because a lot of fans sit beneath the cameras and can’t be seen. Yeah, tonight is clearly not great, but it may not actually be quite as bad as it looks.
Arthur Blank and his minions have flat out given up on the tournament in MBS in anything before the round of 8. We don’t actually know that we couldn’t have sold 20,000+ tickets tonight if it had been played in MBS because we never had a chance to see if that was true. And I can only speak for myself, but I went to Kennesaw in the past decade for a match and I will flat out NEVER go there again. Too much trouble to get there from where I live. Kennesaw isn’t exactly a great location for the majority of AU fans.
Forgot to point out that AU2’s attendance is pretty bad in Kennesaw too. To be VERY blunt, the fans have clearly voted that they don’t want to go to matches there for anybody.
If the FO would swallow their pride, play the game at like 5pm, and sell discounted tickets for “family night” or something, I see no reason why they couldnt get at least 15,000 in the benz for this game.
Maybe. Good idea.
I know they would never do it, but how about silverbacks park? I would have been there but that’s geographic.
Agreed, except they seem to have gone the opposite way and now also charge an absurd rate for parking (which I think used to be free iirc). For me to go to this game would have cost me almost as much as I pay for my seats at the Benz plus a MARTA ride. I used to really like games in Kennesaw but a weeknight game that costs too much to go to? Nah.
Playing on Tuesday doesn’t help either.
I didn’t think 20k go to this game in the benzo. But you’re right; we’ll never know.
I go to every home match and probably would have skipped this one. I mean, I did skip this one but also would have if I had a ticket and it was at Benz. Tuesday night sandwiched between two Saturday night home matches, roster of 2s.
No Stian is down no please no
If you need, you can also watch it on YouTube. Unfortunately, MLS made it unlisted so you have to have the link. Go to atlutd.com for this link in one of their articles. VAMOS ATLANTA!!!
Type in “Atlanta United” and it comes up. But you’re right, hard to find otherwise.
Lineup makes sense. If we lose, it was just the 2s. Less risk of embarrassment and heat on Pineda.
Hernandez is captain. And looks like the 2s plus Gregersen.
I expect a win. Front row, let’s go.
Dayum. Just saw the lineup. That’s the kind of thing Tata would do. Pineda clearly DOES NOT CARE about this match. But we could still win.
I didn’t think we could play the 2s in these?
I think their is a rule on international. And I think they signed a bunch of short term contracts to get around that.
If get upset again, I will be moving from the “probably end of season” car of the #PinedaOut train to the “this window” car.
Forget playing the kids. Don’t pull any punches and play our best available starting XI. Our starters need to show they can still win. The kids can play when we’re up 3-0. And if we’re not up 3-0, keep the starters out there the full 90. No subs. No excuses.
That said, let’s go! Excited for the Cup. And maybe some non-MLS play is exactly what we need to break out of this funk.
Respectfully disagree. We need to find some guys that can challenge the complacency I see in some of our best 11.
Im not saying we should go full send on the kids, but this is as good a chance as any for some rotation, where appropriate.
Im thinking start Dax, get Gregersen back in there, rest GG (who seems to still be trying to recharge).
I’d even start firmino.
Fair enough. It’s the difference in philosophy between “bench the player who is underperforming” and “keep playing him and he’ll break out of it eventually”
My thinking is that our starting XI aren’t clicking like they need to, so they need more game minutes together in order to get in gear.
Based on social media posts, it’s likely we’ll at least see Dax and Firmino.
Your post was 6+ hours ago to be fair to you, but clearly Pineda did not agree with your post based on who is playing. There are a couple of guys starting that I literally have never heard of before. I don’t pay much attention to the 2s is why, but I mean this is clearly a “Screw it. I don’t care.” lineup.
Folks, I appreciate the work and articles, but it seems like y’all tip toeing around the elephant in the room as to Pineda’s future. Been 3 days since that wretched display on Saturday and no article has been put up as to Coach’s future?
There is no elephant in the room with Pineda’s future. He is out of a contract at the end of the year. He is on pace not to get renewed.
I know everyone has their own opinion of Pineda at this point and nobody’s minds are going to be changed. Regardless, I would be highly surprised if we made a panic decision on a new coach, especially with Almada’s status being uncertain this summer.
Depending on how quickly Almada’s transfer situation might get resolved and if we continue a poor run of form, maybe its a different conversation later in summer. We need at least another month of regular season play to even start having that conversation, IMO.
Did not realize Pineda was out of contract at the end of this season. Interesting.
I’ll have an opinion piece out hopefully soon. Just been busy.
i think the only way Pineda saves his job is for him to win the US Open Cup because we know we are not going to win the MLS Cup
I understand why you think that, but I’m 99.99% sure it doesn’t matter very much. If the Five Stripes win USOC, yes, Pineda will return, but I also believe he’ll return if they simply make the playoffs. I know it’s fun for many to say the sky is falling, game over man, game over, but the team is barely out of a playoff spot. There is plenty of time for them to turn things around enough to get into the playoffs and that alone will bring Pineda back. And I think it really doesn’t matter if Pineda stays or goes because if he is fired, he’ll just be replaced by another inexperienced first time manager because the #1 thing in the org is for Bocanegra to get full credit if the team ever wins another trophy and this can only happen if they hire an inexperienced manager that he can push around and make all the player personnel decisions for.
If the Five Stripes lose tonight, it’s certainly not going to be a checkmark in the pro side of a pro/con list on Pineda, but let’s be clear. He’s also NOT going to be fired tomorrow if they lose tonight. So when people post “The best thing about losing is that this will be Pineda’s final match as manager”, I’m telling you that this absolutely not what is going to happen.
I know Pineda won’t be fired even if we lose tonight. Dude is on an expiring contract, so he just won’t be retained. Would be nice to see Boca be shown the boot at the end of the season as well.
Ah, remembering when we actually beat Minnesota United at home. US open cup – I’m here for it.
Today we’re singing Dont Look Back In Anger instead of Champagne Supernova
Ha. Nice.
I was there! Better times.
Me too friend. I’ll be there tonight as well! Who else is going?